


Cessation

by inveigler81



Category: Dirty Sexy Money
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-18
Updated: 2008-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:16:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1628639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inveigler81/pseuds/inveigler81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick & Brian wind up stuck in an elevator, affording them time to talk, or yell as the case may be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cessation

**Author's Note:**

> Massive thanks to intl-princess, as always, for her mad beta skills.
> 
> Written for aloislanz

 

 

Nick hastily snatched papers from his desk and thrust them into his briefcase, straightening a tie he was quite sure didn't match his shirt. He rubbed his eye with the heel of one hand and glanced at the thin mid-morning light stealing through his office windows. He was tired, his eyes stung, his hair was a mess and he was sure coffee was the only thing redeeming his breath.

He'd been up half the night running down a number of matters for both Tripp and Patrick and had even had the pleasure of a late night call from Simon Elder before he could get a foot in the door. He'd slept fully clothed and had managed to wander into a nonsensical argument with Lisa before he was even fully awake. The kind of fight born of the irrationality that comes from sleep deprivation, overwork and resentment. He hadn't seen Kiki properly in a week.

The last person he needed to see right now was Brian.

"Don't you ever answer your phone? Aren't we paying you enough to take calls before a certain hour of the day? Which I think you'll find is, oh wow, eleven!" Brian snapped at him as he stormed into his office, glancing at his wrist in a theatrical manner.

"Sorry, Nick...Brian Darling's here to see you," Daisy apologised, scampering in behind him.

"Thank you Daisy, I can see that,"

"And what exactly do you pay her for, pray tell? To follow you round and state the painfully obvious?" Brian asked sourly.

"You..." Daisy tried to tell Nick something else.

"Thank you greeter girl, that'll be all," Brian interrupted dismissively.

"You have messages..." she pushed on, scowling at him.

"That's ok, Daisy, I'll pick them up later. I'm already running late as it is. So, Brian, I'm sorry, but whatever this current tirade happens to be about, it'll have to wait for another time," Nick smiled with as much politeness as he could muster and started towards the elevator.

"Don't try to wave me off like some lackey," Brian continued to hound him.

"I wouldn't presume to do anything of the sort," Nick sighed as he jabbed impatiently at the button.

"Who's the urgent meeting with?" Nick was always amazed at how swiftly Brian could shift tacks, from anger to curiosity in a heartbeat.

"Tripp, if you must know."

"Trying to negotiate yourself an even bigger piece of the pie?"

"Not exactly." Nick jabbed at the button another couple of times.

"Then what is it about?"

"Look, Brian, I'm tired and I'm really not in the mood for either the third degree or the Darling's patented brand of manipulative game playing. Either you already know what I'm meeting with him about, or it's none of your business. Either way, I'm not having this conversation. Now, if you'll excuse me, I..." Finally the elevator arrived. Nick got in and hoped in vain Brian wouldn't join him.

"Don't you dare get sanctimonious with me," Brian snapped back as he followed Nick in.

"Right, because holier-than-thou is your territory, I forgot..." Nick's own frayed temper began to rise.

"Don't get snippy."

"Allow me to reiterate..." Nick began in exasperation when the car suddenly lurched to a halt, the lights flickering on and off.

"What the hell was that?" Brian demanded.

"Well either the elevator just broke down or this is our own personal form of purgatory," Nick offered dryly.

"Hysterical. Are you here all week?"

"I can assure you, if I am, I'll be strung up from that light fixture by day's end," he quipped back.

"Right because the prospect of spending time with you in a confined space is so deeply appealing to me." Brian scrunched his face at him.

"Let's just concentrate on trying to get out of here, shall we?" Nick asked, his eyebrows heading skywards. Brian continued to scowl at him, as if agreeing with him would be a concession too far. Nick opened the emergency callbox and picked up the receiver.

"Hello..." He spoke into the mouthpiece and immediately jerked it away from his head as he was greeted by screeching static. Thankfully his cell began to vibrate as he replaced the handset. "It's Daisy," he spoke more to himself than to Brian as he took the call.

"Oh good, maybe she can tell you you're stuck in an elevator."

"Daisy, yeah...yeah I know...we're stuck between floors. Can you get in touch with front desk, see if they can get the super onto this as quickly as possible. Thanks...yeah...you can imagine...Call me back if anything changes."

"Sharing your own personal little in-jokes about me?"

"Your insecurity really knows no bounds." Nick shook his head with a smile of disbelief.

"Oh spare me the armchair psychology!" Brian pushed past Nick and began pulling at the lip of one of the doors. "Come on, you piece of crap!"

"Yeah, get belligerent with the doors, I'm sure that'll help," Nick remarked and went to stand at the rear of the car. At that Brian gave up and punched the door instead "Oh, violence, even more productive," he taunted as slid down the rear wall to a seated position.

"Oh shut up! At least I'm trying something, you condescending, self-righteous ass!" Brian rounded on him.

"I'd ask who had 11:05 but I'm guessing you've been waiting all morning to call me that." Nick mimicked Brian's theatrical watch glance.

"Like I'd need an excuse! God!" Brian shouted, turned away and then glanced back over his shoulder, a dark look in his eye. "Go on, make a joke about irony, I dare you."

"The thought never crossed my mind." Nick looked innocent but did smile inwardly at Brian's ready level of blasphemy.

"Yeah, right."

"Look, Brian, just sit down, relax. We'll be out of here before you know it."

"Oh believe me, I'm well aware of that," he responded bitterly as he relented and came to sit beside Nick.

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"You should have just had your vertically-challenged spokesmodel phone Tripp. I'm sure an elite branch of the special forces would be repelling towards us as we speak." The image was, of course, an enormous exaggeration but Nick did live in mild fear of Tripp getting wind of an incident such as this. The prospect of being coerced into `more suitable' office accommodation, at least under the pretence of some proposed refurbishment or other would surely be proposed forthwith. Said accommodation would no doubt have an adjoining door to an office conveniently suited to some new endeavour of Tripp's.

"You're bitter about the fact that he'd want to ensure your safety?" Nick asked, incredulous, shaking off the worrisome thought.

"It's not my safety he'd be thinking of Nick," Brian scoffed.

"Here we go," Nick sighed again, readying himself for the coming onslaught.

"Oh please! That man worships you, believes the sun shines from your nether regions and can't complete a single conversation without blowing smoke in the general direction of at least one of your orifices."

"Thank you, Brian, for that montage of thoroughly delightful mental imagery,"

"Yeah, I'm sure I've offended your oh-so-delicate sensibilities. If I have, I'm sure we can cough up some further fiscal salve to help ease the pain." The bile had returned to Brian's tone.

"So it's the money that has you so hung up on me this time around?"

"Gee, let's see, the money, respect, power, the loving women who throw themselves at you..."

"If you take some kind of personal issue with Karen's feelings for me then this is going to be a far more unpleasant conversation than even I was anticipating," Nick put in apprehensively.

"Are you sick in the head?!" Brian made a strangled kind of face.

"Thankfully not, then." Nick put his hands up with relief. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't exactly think anything pertaining to celibacy or chastity held particular sway in your life,"

"That a dig at my failed ecclesiastical career?" Brian's voice was again dangerous.

"Let's just try one at your infidelities," Nick allowed himself to sink into the trading of sarcasm.

"Let's not. Let's just say I failed to be warmed by God's abundant love," Brian spat back.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Nick hesitated a beat and on some level, honestly meant the remark.

"And why do you think that was, Nick?" Brian turned on him again.

"I don't know, Brian, and I know I'll be sorry if I ask. Though I'm sure you'll enlighten me none the less." Nick was feeling increasingly weary.

"Forget it." Surprisingly, Brian held off and looked away.

"I really wish you would," Nick replied. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before he brought himself to voice his next question. "How did we get here?"

"You work in a sub-code building,"

"No I mean here, constantly at one another's throats, fighting like cat and dog," Nick shook his head at the futility of the exchanges.

"Who knows, maybe because we didn't get around to it as kids." The remark took Nick by surprise, Brian actually seemed to mean or believe it.

"Oh, I think you made your feelings about me perfectly clear," he observed.

"And?!"

"What? What did I ever do to you as a child, Brian?! Sure, we never had anything remotely resembling a friendship, let alone a fraternal relationship..." Nick's own anger came to the fore as his voice began to rise.

"What? Like the kind with secret handshakes and decoder rings?"

"If you like! It would've been preferable to bathing in the vitriol of how much you despise me every time I set foot in your house!"

"Can you blame me?!"

"What was my fault?!" Nick demanded.

"You stole my share!" Brian shouted at him.

"Your...what?" That brought Nick up short.

"Never mind," Brian's tone sank, like he was trying to steer away from the remark.

"Your share of what, Brian? I think I was little young to be catching flak for going after the keys to the kingdom at that stage," Nick pressed him, confused.

"So you don't deny that's what you're doing now?" He tried to change topics.

"Can we stay on the matter at hand?" Nick wouldn't let him. Brian looked to be chewing something over. It took him a few moments to speak it aloud.

"Looking back, it makes more sense now. Letitia wanted to love you, to mother you because you were Dutch's, Tripp did the same - you were his best friend's son. Though I've always found the extent of that bond baffling, I wouldn't be half surprised if your paternity lay elsewhere." He put it to Nick with a twisted smile, unable to round out anything without some form of barb.

"You're being ridiculous," Nick ignored him.

"Am I?"

"So, you believe that because they bore affection towards me they loved you less?"

"Yes. No. Not exactly. Maybe because you were on the fringes, on the outside looking in, they found caring for you easier, more natural than they ever did for us."

"Us? So now I somehow robbed the entire Darling brood of parental care?" Nick misread the statement, goading Brian into another bitter outburst.

"At least you got some! Can you really refute that? Look at us! Sure I fled to the church and we all know how that worked out. Patrick succeeded in having a loveless marriage and a sordid, dysfunctional affair. Karen craves love wherever she can lay her hands on it or wrap her legs around it..."

"Hey..." Nick involuntarily tried to interrupt in Karen's defence.

"...and Jeremy and Juliet's concept of parenting comes with a decimal point. I think you did pretty well out of the pieces of three parents you had!" Brian seethed at him. The silence descended heavily upon them again.

"If they're that bad, if your ties to your family are that far beyond redemption, why do you stay? Put up with it? Put yourself on the line for a family you have no faith or belief in?" Nick was genuinely interested in the answer.

"You'd like that wouldn't you? Me squarely out of the picture."

"Answer the question."

"Because they know me. They've forgiven me. I'm pre-approved." Each statement was cold, the kind that had been calculated and evaluated, devoid of affection or emotion. Brian's concept of unconditional love.

"I actually think I know what you mean," Nick opted to placate him.

"Oh, really?" Brian asked mockingly.

"Hear me out. I never had much of a relationship with my...our father. I can't deny there's something appealing in certain dealings with Tripp. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the ulterior motive. I'm increasingly finding, however, that there rarely seems to be one...his acceptance of me feels genuine, feels unconditional." It was true, little in those twinkling eyes or that winsome smile held malice or subterfuge for him anymore.

"How nice for you. Would you like me to hold the wound open or can you rub in enough salt from there?"

"Damn it, Brian! He loves you too! If you'd just stop trying so hard to impress him all the time and just be yourself..."

"I'm sorry, I don't happen to have a pen, could I borrow one to jot down your little pearls of wisdom?" Brian's anger had cooled, solidified.

"Y'know what?" Nick gave up mid-thought and threw up his hands, "Fine." Neither of them said anything for a while, all was silent save for the flickering hum of the lights.

"At least that damn music stopped," Brian finally broke the silence.

"Finally something objectionable to you that isn't my fault," Nick tried at a wry smile and glanced at his phone again. "I should phone Lisa, I'm meant to pick up Kiki after the meeting,"

"Ah yes, the happy family unit," Brian couldn't help but go back on the offensive.

"What? Did I somehow manage to show you up there as well?"

"Your words." Brian cocked an eyebrow at him, "Why don't you just toss in your noble career and I'll chalk up another one in your column,"

"You know the actual irony in all of this, Brian? You're the one trying to throw yourself into Darling family life and I'm the one trying to keep from drowning in it." Nick put his face in his hands, the act of self-justification adding to his exhaustion.

"I'm sorry you find all the trust and adulation so cloying."

"What would you have me do, Brian? What would make you happy? Save making good on my threat about the light fixture?!" Nick demanded, heat coming back to his voice.

"I don't want anything from you."

"Then what?! You want me to disappear. Give up, throw in the towel?"

"Heavens no. Tripp would have me disappeared for such an affront in an instant," Brian answered cynically.

"You actually believe that?"

"Of course not! But the simple truth remains that he needs you!" Something in Brian's voice broke and his rage took full hold. "He always needs you! He needs you for everything! Every single, damnable thing!" He continued to rail, "He needs you a hell of a lot more than he'll ever need me! For once, just once in my godforsaken life, I'd like to know what that felt like!" Brian's breath came short and fast. Like a storm that had blown itself out, he shrank back into an eerie calm.

"Well, I'm sure..." Nick began, taken aback.

"Oh, save the patronising platitudes for somebody who gives a rat crap," Brian dismissed him. They sat again in sullen silence.

"Do you have any idea how infuriating trying to hold a civil conversation with you can be?" Nick asked simply. Brian actually smiled at him.

"What are brothers for?" He asked, then, out of nowhere, punched him jovially in the arm, "This is how I hold conversations, be thankful we're having one. Oh and by the way, you look like shit and your breath smells worse," he said it like he somehow intended the observations to be helpful.

"Are we resorting to name calling next?"

"If need be." Brian nodded seriously. Nick smiled in spite of himself. As suddenly as it had stopped the elevator lurched back to life again. "Thank God," Brian muttered as they stood up and dusted themselves off.

"Really? I thought we were on the verge of a breakthough. Maybe we could play some trust games," Nick tried at a joke.

"I doubt I could throw you that far." Brian only tried at half of one. At last the car reached the ground floor. The inner doors shot open but the outer ones remained steadfastly shut.

"We'll have you outta there in a second!" A voice called through the metal.

"Well, Brian, I'd say it was a pleasure..."

"Likewise." At that Brian took Nick's right hand and shook it in a bizarre fashion.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Two left, one right, it's the dwarf's secret shake...y'know what, to hell with you," Brian shook his head as the outer doors began to move aside with much complaint.

"No," Nick took his hand and emulated the odd set of gestures, withholding a smile he was sure would be mistaken for mockery. "Two left, one right...I think I can handle that."

"Yeah, we'll see." The coating of sourness was thinner and Nick held to the hope for an instant that maybe some things could change. Finally the doors gave and shot open. The heavyset figure of the building superintendent made to greet them and to apologise. Brian, of course, had no time for any of that. "Outta the way chunky!" He bellowed in his face before storming out towards the street. Nick sniffed a laugh and muttered to himself under his breath.

"Then again, some things probably never will."

 


End file.
